Andreas Tsipas (; ; ; 1904–1956) was a Slavic Macedonian leader of the

Greek Communist Party The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Biography

Andreas Tsipas was from Agios Panteleimonas. He was a Slavic Macedonian.. In the interwar period, Tsipas was a member of

IMRO (United) The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) (1925–1936); ) commonly known in English as IMRO (United), was the name of a revolutionary political organization active across the entire geographical region of Macedonia. History IMR ...

Greek Macedonia Macedonia ( ; , ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and geographic region in Greece, with a population of 2.36 million (as of 2020). It is highly mountainous, wit ...

, part of its left–wing faction and supported autonomy for Macedonia. Tsipas became a member of the Central Committee of the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

(KKE). He was a KKE candidate in the last pre-war Greek legislative elections in 1936. In the KKE, Tsipas was pro–Bulgarian. Between 1935 and 1941, he was imprisoned at

Acronauplia The Acronauplia (; , "Inner Castle") is the oldest part of the city of Nafplion in Greece. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. ...

prison. In June 1941, the Bulgarians secured his release. Tsipas was one of 27 communist prisoners released from the Acronauplia at the request of the

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n embassy in Athens with the intercession of Bulgarian Club in Thessaloniki, which had made representations to the German occupation authorities. With the permission from the leader of KKE Giannis Ioannides to reconstruct the Greek Communist Party, they all declared Bulgarian ethnicity. Some merely pretended to be a Bulgarian in order to be set free, such as Kostas Lazaridis who was a

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek (, ; or ''Romeika'') is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety ...

Andreas Tzimas Andreas Tzimas (; 1 September 1909 – 1 December 1972), known also under his World War II-era ''nom de guerre'' of Vasilis Samariniotis (Βασίλης Σαμαρινιώτης), was a leading Greek Communist politician, best known as one of the ...

a Greek

Vlach Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) ...

, Petros Kentros of Arvanite and Vlach descent, etc. After his release, Tsipas followed orders from the KKE leadership and worked with Tzimas to form local committees in Athens. Tsipas and others set about reorganising the decimated KKE. Along with

and Kostas Lazaridis, also released from prison, and Petros Rousos, Pandelis Karankitzis and Chrysa Hatzivasileiou constituted themselves as a new central committee. For a brief period Tsipas became leader of the KKE as its secretary–general.. The role was given to him at a meeting in July 1941, subsequently named as the VI Plenum by the KKE. This new central committee succeeded in winning the recognition of the "old central committee" and the "provisional leadership" wings of the party. At the VII Plenum of the central committee, held the following September, Tsipas was relieved of his post owing to "political unreliability". He had disputes with several high ranking leaders of the KKE. Tsipas was careless in security terms and abused alcohol. One account claims that after running up a bill in a bar, he sent the barman to the secret meeting place of the politburo, where someone was expected to pay his bill. After the removal from his post, he was isolated. During the occupation of Greece, he was arrested by Greek authorities and the Italians handed Tsipas over to the Bulgarians. Later he left for Bulgaria through the assistance of the Bulgarian Club of Thessaloniki and the organisation Ohrana. In January 1942, he sought refuge in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, where he remained for eight months.Bŭlgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo, Institut za istoria (Bŭlgarska akademia na naukite) Издател, 2000, str. 156. According to some sources then he was an agent of the Bulgarian

secret service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

. In 1944, Tsipas through the National Liberation Front (NOF) returned and was present in

Yugoslav Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia (), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia, Yugoslav Macedonia or simply Macedonia, was one of the six constituent republics of the post-World War II Socialist Federal Republic of ...

at the conclusion of the

.. During the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

, he was active in the (NOF) working as a nurse. After the defeat of the

Democratic Army of Greece The Democratic Army of Greece (DAG; , ΔΣΕ; ''Dimokratikós Stratós Elládas'', DSE) was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949). At its height, it had a strength of around 50,000 men and w ...

, he fled to

SFRY The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

in the

Socialist Republic of Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia (), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia, Yugoslav Macedonia or simply Macedonia, was one of the six constituent republics of the post-World War II Socialist Federal Republic of Y ...

, in the city of

Bitola Bitola (; ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing ...

, where he died in 1956, suffering from alcoholism.Καλλιανιώτης,Αθανάσιος (2007, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (ΑΠΘ)), Οι πρόσφυγες στη Δυτική Μακεδονία (1941 - 1946)
''εκεί πέθανε ίσως από το πολύ ποτό''

Notes

References

* Matthias Esche, ''Die Kommunistische Partei Griechenlands 1941-1949'', Munich: Oldenbourg, 1982. * Hagen Fleischer, ''Im Kreuzschatten der Mächte Griechenland 1941-1944 (Okkupation-Resistance-Kollaboration)'', Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1986, p. 591. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsipas, Andreas 1904 births 1956 deaths People from Amyntaio Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia General secretaries of the Communist Party of Greece Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) members Date of birth missing Date of death missing